Joseph Đỗ Quang Khang

Joseph Đỗ Quang Khang (born 7 November 1965) is a Vietnamese Catholic prelate serving as the fourth Bishop of Bắc Ninh since 2023. He previously served as coadjutor bishop of Bắc Ninh from 2021 to 2023 and Secretary-General of the Catholic Education Committee under the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Vietnam.

Biography

Early life and education

Đỗ Quang Khang was born on 7 November 1965 in Thủ Đức, Gia Định, Republic of Việt Nam to Giuse Đỗ Văn Cao and Maria Nguyễn Thị Tuyết.^[1] His parents are from Bắc Giang, belonging to the Diocese of Bắc Ninh, but moved to Saigon in 1954.^[2] He was baptized shortly after in the same month at Từ Đức Church in Thủ Đức. He was also later confirmed as an eight-year-old.^[3] He is the eighth of ten siblings and attended Nguyễn Hữu Huân High School in Thủ Đức from 1981 to 1983. He later attended Ho Chi Minh City College of Education from 1984 to 1987. After graduating, he joined the teaching faculty at Hưng Bình School in Thủ Đức a year later. In 1989, he became a volunteer at a farm in Hóc Môn for two years. He then entered Saint Joseph Major Seminary of Sài Gòn in October 1993 and graduated in June 1999.^[3]

Priesthood

Khang was ordained a priest on 30 June 1999 by Jean-Baptiste Phạm Minh Mẫn along with three future bishops at the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon for the Archdiocese of Hồ Chí Minh City.^[4] Khang's first assignment after ordination was at Chợ Đũi Church of Sài Gòn deanery. After two years there, Khang was sent to the Catholic University of Toulouse, earning a master of arts in Biblical theology in 2006,^[1] and was also sent to Rome after, earning a licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 2010.^[5]

Upon returning to Vietnam, he became a resident priest of Saint Joseph Major Seminary of Sài Gòn and taught on the topics of the Synoptic Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and Biblical Greek.^[3] He became the dean of studies of the seminary in 2011 and then vice-rector in 2020.^[1] He also continued as a lecturer at the seminary, the Catholic Institute of Vietnam, Saint Joseph Major Seminary of Hà Nội, and for the institutes of various religious orders while keeping those roles.^[3][5]

Episcopal ministry

Coadjutor Bishop of Bắc Ninh

On 30 October 2021, Pope Francis appointed Khang as coadjutor bishop of Bắc Ninh.^[1] This appointment was one of the first in a period of three years and six months since the last episcopal appointment in 2018 by the Pope. It also marked the longest "waiting period" for an appointment since the period from 1982 to 1988.^[6] The appointment also came as a surprise to many because there were currently also four vacant sees in the ecclesiastical province of Hà Nội at the time.^[6]

At a gathering after the announcement, Khang expressed that he was apprehensive at first, but also expressed joy at the thought of an "ancestral homecoming" in a sense, since his family roots lie in the region. Also speaking at the gathering, Archbishop Joseph Nguyễn Năng of Hồ Chí Minh City stated that he offered "considerable encouragement" to accept the appointment. ^[7]

Bishop of Bắc Ninh

On 17 June 2023, Francis accepted the resignation of Cosma Hoàng Vãn Ðat SJ. Khang subsequently became the next Bishop of Bắc Ninh as coadjutor bishop.^[8]